Students don shirts all month to win iPods


By Dana Crudo
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, April 15, 2004

If you sit near Ray Jaffe in class, you can smell how badly he wants a free iPod.

Jaffe has been wearing the same bright yellow shirt since April 5, hoping to win Apple's promotional competition.

Jaffe is one of 30 members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity who are participating in Apple's new promotional campaign that requires participants to wear a bright yellow shirt from April 5 to April 29 in order to win free iPods.

"It's a crazy stunt that 30 crazy frat guys are pulling off," said Matt Van Horn, a student representative for Apple.

Apple selected Kappa Sigma after the company conducted a poll at the UofA Bookstore. The fraternity showed a lot of interest and is the biggest house on campus.

The first 30 individuals to send an e-mail from the fraternity were selected to participate in the promotional event. The UA is the first university to have students participating in the promotion.

The guys, who admit they hate the shirts and plan to burn them when the competition ends, say the prize keeps them going.

"No way would I have enough money of mine to buy an iPod," said Jaffe, a Wildcat delivery driver.

Juan Carlos Mazry, a criminal justice administration junior, said he washed his shirt once, and he changes his undershirt every day.

"It's not a big deal," he said.

Mazry said teachers have called him up to the front of the class to explain why he is wearing such a bright shirt.

"It's more entertaining when there is a group of us in a class with the same shirt," he said.

Teachers haven't singled Jaffe out, but he said he has gotten weird looks from people around campus.

"The first couple of days are hard because people see you and don't know why you're wearing the shirt, and they look at you funny," he said. "It gets uncomfortable."

He also said some people make smart remarks like "30 days, 30 days."

But Jaffe said putting on the shirt has become a habit, and as students become more aware of what is going on, they no longer look at him strangely or ask questions.

"Everyone I have talked to said they would do it too if they had the chance," he said.

Mazry said doing it with his fraternity brothers makes putting on the same shirt every morning easier.

"It would be weird to do it all by yourself," he said. "It's entertaining to go to class with your friends. It's kind of funny."

Along with wearing the promotional shirt, the participants are also responsible for giving out 300 business cards to students. The cards promote a bundle of Apple products sold at the UofA Bookstore.

The students can then use the cards to enter a raffle to win $50 worth of free iTunes.

The participant who distributes the most cards that bring sales to the bookstore will receive an additional $200 worth of music from the iTunes music store.

The competition ends with a technology fair at the UofA Bookstore.